A University of the Philippines (UP) professor and a leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) believe that, contrary to government claims, no peace agreement will be forged this year or in the remaining years of the Arroyo administration. The MILF leader has also accused the Arroyo administration of using its peace talks with the MILF for money.

BY JHONG DELA CRUZ
Bulatlat.com

Prof. Julkipli Wadi of the University of the Philippines (UP) Institute for Islamic Studies said that he foresees no peace deal for southern Philippines in the remaining four-year term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“It has always been that the government meant to contain the problem in Mindanao and not to resolve it,” which is geared toward “preserving the status-quo (in Mindanao),” Professor Wadi said. Waiting on the
side as the peace talks are ongoing, he said, are the region’s major stakeholders – multi-donor companies who are itching for the region’s rich economic potential for oil, logistics and manpower, he said.

He also described as “unprecedented” the government’s dependence on the United States (U.S.) for military assistance. “Every now and then they are concocting programs to make sure the U.S. maintains its hands in Mindanao,” he said.

These quick-fix approaches will take Mindanao nowhere near peace, Wadi warned.

Money making

Meanwhile, a highly-placed MILF official accused the Arroyo administration of using the Mindanao conflict to source funds from abroad.

“The Mindanao conflict is being used by GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) as a source of funding abroad, part of its mendicancy policy,” said the source who requested anonymity.

The MILF leader said that much of the money generated mostly from foreign agencies has never uplifted those who are affected by the long-drawn Moro rebellion.

The U.S., through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has been pouring in money as military aid for the Philippine government.

Since 2000, the U.S. has granted some $300 million in security funds, on top of additional funding for civic services and infrastructures. Some 25 percent of the funds were spent in Sulu alone.

This year, the government will receive from USAID $21 million supposedly to curb graft and corruption. Until 2009, Mindanao will be seeing much of U.S.’ hand in the integration of some 1,000 Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) ex-combatants into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as well as in education, health services and electrification of some 6,000 households.

The MILF source assailed Arroyo for mastering the use of “flattery, money and threat to rein in even the worst of her detractors,” adding that the president has wielded no political power to address dirty
politics in the peace process.

The Arroyo government appears to be “dribbling” the peace talks, falling out in times of provoked fighting and rushing in to save its grip in Mindanao, he also said.

Bleak future

The Arroyo government is reportedly targeting either the month of September or the commemoration of Ramadan as the deadline for its peace deal with the MILF. The latter is awaiting the government’s counter-proposal on territorial boundaries but Malacañang has not yet submitted this.

Because of this, the MILF source said, no final peace accord would be signed this year between the MILF and the government.

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